Working Paper No. 12-53:
Marshall's Maps, the U.S. Reports, and the New Judicial Restraint

Author(s):

Abstract:

This
version contains low-resolution images. For a version with high-resolution
images, please email the author at rdavies@greenbag.org. As a biographer of
George Washington, John Marshall was a believer in the value of pictures as
complements to the written word. Both the first and second editions of his Life
of Washington feature an “Atlas” of handsome maps of various regions and
locales as they appeared at important points in Washington’s career. (Nowadays,
the text-filled volumes of the Life are easy to find, but the atlases are rare
and expensive to the point of inaccessibility. So, the Green Bag is sharing an
atlas on pages 453-462 below – in black-and-white print and color pdf.) As a
member of the Supreme Court, however, Marshall apparently had little interest
in illustrations. There were very few in the U.S Reports for the 34 years he
served on the Court. Modern Justices seem to hold the opposite view. They put
illustrations (sometimes lavishly large and colorful ones) in their judicial
opinions, but their extrajudicial book projects rarely have more than a few
pictures, and those they do include are invariably plain and small and
black-and-white. Perhaps times – and judicio-authorial perspectives on pictures
– have changed. Or perhaps not. A quick comparison of the circumstances in
which Marshall’s writings and those of his modern successors have included
illustrations – lavish or plain – suggests that in at least two respects
thinking about pictures is as Marshallian today as it was in Marshall’s day:
(1) the Justices do indeed like to illustrate their work, but (2) their
publishers print lavish pictures only when they have no choice, and opt for
black-and-white when they can.